This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist News
Former Kiss man discusses his breast cancer
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 23 October 2009
Former Kiss member Peter Criss has told reporters he kept his diagnosis of breast cancer a secret simply because he was embarrassed about suffering from a disease that most people associate more or less exclusively with women.
Admitting that he was diagnosed with the disease after finding a lump on his left nipple in December 2007, he told CNN this week: “I was petrified. I kept thinking, ‘This is not happening to me’. I went into total shock. My wife and I discussed it a lot and we were like, we can’t let anyone know this because the tabloids are vicious”.
But he said he had decided to go public, having successfully fought the disease last year, in case it would help other men who may be suffering from the illness to get an early diagnosis. Criss: “[I thought], so, it’s embarrassing, but somebody should [say something]. I think you should open your big mouth and say something. Even if only one or two guys get this, or their wives say to them ‘I think there’s something wrong, I think we should check this out’. Then I have achieved something more than a People’s Choice award or a gold record”.